ASSOCIATIONS OPPOSE NEW ALCOHOLIC
BEVERAGE CONTROL RULES CHANGE THAT COULD FAVOR BARS AND HARM COMMUNITIES

Hot on the civic action agenda is a 100-page draft law
("rulemaking") that would overhaul current ABC regulations,
reportedly tendentiously against the communities that contain or abut
establishments that serve food and liquor. At issue inter alia are
the percentages sold of each that would identify locations as either
restaurants or nightclubs. A basic concern is that restaurants (cafes,
conference centers, etc.) obtain licenses as restaurants and then
quietly turn the licensed facility into a de facto entertainment
locale (nuisance, late-night dive, etc.), with the attendant
problems for surrounding taxbase neighborhoods of noise, late-night
commotion and all-hour traffic.

Two ABC Board task forces have conferred and advised on new draft
regulations. Both businesses and community representatives have
participated in the deliberations. First came a general task force of some
25 members. Next, a successor group was appointed to focus on restaurants
and bars specifically. It is the draft result of these groupings' efforts
and ABC Board input that is at the point of final preparation and
presentation to the city council for approval.

Mr. Michael Fasano, president of the powerhouse, high-profile Dupont
Circle Citizens Association, sees "significant reductions in the
rights of residents" in the new preparation, and announced that DCCA
and other associations are arranging for legal help and will submit a
legal analysis of the proposed rules to the ABC Board and city council. A
number of Federation delegates are active in opposing the controversial
draft regulations, and all should be aware of the far-reaching
consequences of any such "rulemaking."

Putting the cart before the horse, inter alia, the new draft
would require that proponents of renewing a moratorium on new
liquor-servicing establishments or other expansion demonstrate at X time
that conditions that engendered the moratorium still exist. Constant
nagging industry agitation for such proof would be an easily foreseeable
result of such a provision, if approved.

Another provision, that definition of restaurant status be by dollar
amount of annual sales, was opposed by Kalorama delegate Ann Hargrove as
cutting into percentage qualification ratios (of food to liquor) sales for
restaurant status. Another aspect of the draft proposal is the impact on
[Continued on page 2]property values by loosened regulations. Also in the
worrisome draft is a provision for "special events" by bars and
restaurants outside of normal practice -- a Pandora's box to some resident
activists. In addition, up to four repeated violations of the new
regulations would be permissible before a locale's liquor license would be
lifted, and it would be easier to require a cover charge.

The response period on the new draft will end on January 30. After the
ABC Board weighs and votes on the final proposals and its staff
preparations, it will send the rulemaking proposal to the city council for
approval.

FOGGY BOTTOM ASSOCIATION TO GET PROJECTED
$3.6 MILLION IN DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

The buyer of the decommissioned Columbia Hospital for Women will donate
as much as $3.6 million to the Foggy Bottom Association in exchange for
the association's full support of developer plans to turn the hospital
into 200-240 luxury condominiums.

Trammel Crow Co. has reached agreement with the community and local ANC
2A, and plans to demolish all additions to the former hospital at 2425 L
Street, NW, and build two nine-story towers on either side of the 1916
building. The development would also have a fair amount of
"neighborhood-serving" retail space, including a grocery store,
and a 330-car parking area. The company hopes to begin construction in
about a year.

Without the Foggy Bottom Association's cooperation, the development
could not move forward, as the association and the ANC hold a binding
covenant with the hospital, signed in 1987, that prohibits expansion
beyond 230,000 square feet. The Trammel Crow plan contemplates a total
development of 350,000 square feet.

As a government body, the ANC is prohibited from accepting money. But
the FBA -- which usually operates on an annual budget of about $6,500,
mostly from the dues paid by its 500 members, agreed to release the
hospital from the covenant, and to support the developer's plan "to
the maximum density." The vote of the FBA board to support the
project and accept the $3.6 million was 11 to 2.

There were no stipulations as to how the association would spend the
$3.6 million. Many of its past efforts have been devoted to stopping the
expansion of George Washington University. With the new funds, the
association would be able to hire high-powered legal help, observed one
reporter.

According to the agreement, the FBA does not get the money until ten
days after "the receipt of complete building permits." If less
that the 350,000 square feet is approved, the FBA gets less money, and
there has already been one setback to the plan at the Historic
Preservation Review Board. Even so, any eventual settlement will be huge.

This is an example to be imitated of an active, vigilant association's
having concluded a farsighted binding agreement in advance, concerning a
community property that can change status under possible area-impacting
successor owners. In the Foggy Bottom instance, the association and the
ANC were under their agreement enabled to condition and influence
developer plans for the benefit and health of the community. Community
spokesmen give high marks to Foggy Bottom Association president Ron Cocome
for negotiating final arrangements with the developer firm.

In its "Transportation Cheers and Jeers for 2002," the
American Automobile Association ranked Mayor Anthony Williams' admission
in September that the District does use traffic cameras inter alia
to raise revenue from fines, as its third-worst transportation
development. Number 1 worst was the area's traffic congestion, which is
the nation's third worst; and number 2 worst was Northern Virginia's
defeat of the sales tax referendum for transportation. AAA's best
development in the area is the tri-state decision in July to synchronize
traffic lights in Maryland, Virginia, and the District in the next three
years to ameliorate congestion and reduce air pollution.

In a tentative land-exchange deal the tip of a future iceberg? The
citizens associations of Foxhall, Burleith, Glover Park, and Palisades
have united in opposition to a planned and dubious exchange of land by the
National Park Service and the Casey Mansion Foundation, which is donating
a Foxhall Road estate and endowment for a mayor's mansion. Specifically,
the Park Service is set to turn over four strategic acres of parkland
bordering pristine Glover Archbold Park, to augment to whopping 16.5-acre
estate tract. A much inferior plot would be "exchanged" for the
acreage. The augmentation is desired for construction of a large
guardhouse and second entrance to the mansion.

Which is worrisome to some observers is the mindset at work with this
project. This first move to aggrandize the mansion enterprise is likely to
be the first of more such actions, once use of any future mansion takes
off under future DC mayors. Endowments for the bare upkeep of such
palatial houses are not of guaranteed sufficiency. Beyond physical
maintenance, there is no need for a large swank mansion if it is not to be
used for large-scale, expensive entertaining and crowd functions -- at
city taxpayer expense, and apart from the Casey endowment.

Some official ostentation is necessary. US Ambassadors' mansions abroad
are usually grand structures along the lines of the projected DC mayor's
mansion, and are duly expensive to support in necessary style. However, a
US city mayor does not have the same important representational
responsibilities of an American ambassador abroad, nor does he/she have
the US Treasury (unwillingly) paying for the entertainment and other
operating bills. For cities there are normal alternatives, and the
District's present arrangements for limited mayoral housing allowances and
expense accounts are arguably sufficient.

The current issue facing the four protesting associations focuses on
protection of parkland from undue encroachment. The larger issue is: does
the perpetually cash-strapped, high-tax city need a palatial,
likely-white-elephant mansion for its mayor?

Foxhall Citizens Association president Peter Ross will present on the
mansion subject at the January assembly.

On August 30, the Office of Zoning received a request from the Office
of Planning requesting a text amendment to change the definition of
building height in the municipal regulations (11 DCMR sec. 199.1, July
1995, as amended). The proposed change is:

"Building, height of -- the vertical distance measured from the
level curb opposite the middle of the front of the building to the
highest point of the roof or parapet. The term curb shall refer to a
curb at grade. In the case of a property fronting on a street that is
elevated above grade, the height of the building shall be measured from
the natural grade at the middle of the front of the building to the
highest point of the roof or parapet."

A public hearing on this case will be conducted Thursday, January 30,
at 6:30 p.m. at the Office of Zoning. All individuals, organizations, or
associations wishing to testify in this case should file their intention
to testify in writing. Written statements may be submitted for inclusion
in the record. The Zoning Commission's address is: Secretary of the Zoning
Commission, Office of Zoning, Suite 210, 441 4th Street, NW, Washington,
DC 20001.

Weekly street cleaning has been suspended in the District, along with
the parking restrictions that go with it, through March 17. All other
parking restrictions are still in effect, according to the Department of
Public Works.

City council chair Linda Cropp will hold a public roundtable Tuesday,
January 28, at 6:00 p.m. to discuss existing preliminary recommendations
for an overhaul of the DC Comprehensive Plan. The hearing will take place
at the Wilson Building fifth floor Council Chamber, 1350 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW.

A 29-person task force has been at work since May 2002 formulating
recommendations for improvement of the vitally important Comprehensive
Plan. Committee members were drawn from a broad based group of citizens,
businesses, and institutions throughout the District, and were assisted by
a consultant team. Penn Branch delegate Laura Richards, Esq., represents
the Federation. Other delegates serve from their base organizations. These
are: Ann Hargrove (Kalorama), Gregory New (Federation of Civic
Associations), and Richard Wolf, Esq. (Capitol Hill).

Following the January 21 public roundtable, the Office of Planning (OP)
and the Task Force will meet to discuss the feedback provided at the
roundtable and modifications to the preliminary recommendations. A final
report should be submitted by the OP to the Mayor and the Council by the
end of February.

In addition to the Federation, associations and ANCs citywide will want
to participate in this important effort. Delegates interested in reviewing
the preliminary recommendations are encouraged to access them on-line in
mid-January at the OP web site at www.planning.dc.gov
or to call Ms. Julie Wagner at the OP, 442-7624, to obtain a copy.

Delegates and others who wish to speak at the roundtable are requested
to contact Ms. Aretha Latta at 724-8196 and furnish their names,
organizations, and contact data by close of business on Thursday, January
23, 2003. Pro se individuals have three minutes speaking time;
representatives of organizations have five minutes.

The city council's draft legislation on the Metropolitan Police
Department's (MPD) use of video surveillance cameras is reaching
completion. Ms. Patterson held an 8-hour hearing December 12, participated
in by an impressive group of experts, including Canada's Privacy
Commissioner. Her staff has been redrafting the bill and will have a new
version sometime in January.

One area the committee will address in the new bill, which was not in
the draft on which the hearing was held, is the sharing of information
from the cameras with other public agencies, such as the FBI, the Secret
Service, Capitol Police, Maryland and Virginia state police, and
neighborhood county police. Private entities, such as the Business
Improvement Districts (BIDs), are also being considered.

In the December 27, 2002 DC Register (pp. 11872-11873), the MPD gave
notice that it will install more cameras to use during two upcoming
marches in Washington, viz., the January 17-19 antiwar
demonstrations and the January 22 pro-life demonstration. The Christian
Defense Coalition noted it is going to court to protest video surveillance
of its march on January 22. The police department is accepting comments on
this deployment of surveillance cameras.

The upcoming bill to regulate surveillance cameras will cover both
traffic surveillance cameras and stationary or mobile area surveillers.
The two categories are widely different in their implications for the
citizenry, and should be viewed separately rather than, as is tempting, to
be lumped together as simple lookout surveillance. It is the broad-area,
constant camera observation that has raised the most concerns and caused
the most disagreement, even within the Federation.

All associations should keep close watch on the Patterson bill as it is
presented in January-February, and participate freely in crafting the
final version of the law. In the long term, this may be the most important
legislation of the year.

Representatives of Georgetown, Hillandale, and Burleith and Georgetown
University, Georgetown Hospital, and the Georgetown Business Community
have been participating in an emergency preparedness pilot project that
could be the first step in developing a community-wide emergency alert
network in the three-community area. This project is in collaboration with
Roam Secure, Inc., an Arlington-based company that has developed a system
used by thousands of government leaders and first responders, including
the DC Emergency Management Agency, the Metropolitan Council of
Governments, and Arlington County.

Basically, the project entails neighborhood residents and businesses
registering themselves and their computer and cell telephone contact data
with the project center, in order to receive quick warning of emergencies.
Such advance warning is ahead of that of the news media, and kicks in even
if normal TV and radio communication is knocked out or otherwise
immobilized.

The Roam Secure Alert Network allows urgent text messages to be sent to
all types of cell phones, pagers, PDAs, email and wireless carriers. The
goal is to deliver tens of thousands of notifications in fewer than two
minutes. The messaging technology has been proven to function during
catastrophic events when cell phones continually rang busy. The network
incorporates a web-based interface that allows for remote message
generation from any Internet connection or mobile device and simplifies
account management.

Although used successfully by other organizations, this is the first
use of the plan on an area-wide basis. Over 100 participants have
registered on line in the Georgetown plan. The project is temporarily in a
pilot evaluation mode. After evaluation of the pilot, the three
communities will have the opportunity to debate the pros and cons.
Additional, technical information is being given by the Roam company at
association meetings.

Associations and ANCs interested in inquiring about details and
advantages of a similar quick-reaction preparedness program of their own
may contact Roam Secure, Inc., telephone 703-294-6768, fax 703-294-6560,
or www.roamsecure.net.

For those who want to run for these positions, the petition circulation
period is Monday, January 6, 2003, through Monday, January 27, 2003. The
petition challenge period is Thursday, January 30, 2003, through February
5, 2003. Candidates should pick up nominating petitions at the DC Board of
Elections and Ethics, 441 4th Street, NW, Room 250 North. For information,
call 727-2525.

The District's unique ANCs play an important role in their areas and
dispose of substantial money allocations for good works. Associations
should monitor the positions above, with a view to encouraging qualified
community-supporting candidates to run for office.

The DC Office of Tax and Revenue has notified owners of vacant
properties on record that, as of January 1, 2003, vacant property will be
taxed at $5 per $100 of assessed value, instead of the former rates of
96¢ for residential properties and $1.85 per $100 for all other
properties.

Washington lost two of its oldest and wisest civic activists in late
2002. Dr. Phil Ogilvey was a delegate from the Oldest Inhabitants
Association and Dr. Robert Stiehler is a former delegate from Chevy Chase.
Dr. Ogilvey, inter alia a professor at George Washington
University, long served as an important part of the city's institutional
memory and was active in many civic causes. Dr. Stiehler was the city's
leading authority on the citizen side on utility matters. We will miss
them, their encyclopedic knowledge, and their constant contributions to
the city.

Most local people don't know it, but by means of Resolution 14-626,
"Sense of the Council on Criteria for Use of War Powers Against
Iraq," in late November, the city council legislated advice to
President Bush on how to proceed with Iraq. The resolution noted that:
"Sec. 2(5) The recent vote by the Congress to authorize the use of
force would place District of Columbia residents serving in the United
States Armed Forces at risk of death and commit local tax resources paid
to the United States Treasury by District of Columbia residents to support
the purpose of making war. Because the vote by the Congress to commit
lives and resources did not include representation by the citizens of the
District of Columbia, it is all the more incumbent on the Council to
publicly state its view on this issue."

The resolution goes on to specify the sense of the Council that, in
brief, the president should refrain from use of the war authority until
(1) there is proof of an imminent threat from Iraq, (2) "a
demonstration of" support from the international community, (3)
"a comprehensive plan for United States financial and political
commitment to long-term cultural, economic and political stabilization in
a free Iraq," and who will pay for it, and (4) a broad commitment
"that the United (sic) will take all necessary efforts to protect the
health, safety, and security of United States Armed Forces, the Iraqi
people and existing infrastructure, and safety of United States allies and
interests in the region."

The council measure was sent to (1) the mayor, (2) President Bush, (3)
the Congress of the United States, and (4) representative organizations,
including the National Conference of State Legislatures, National League
of Cities, National Conference of Mayors, and National Association of
Counties.

The District city council action, embarrassingly well distributed, is a
venture necessarily outside the proper sphere of American domestic
governmental divisions, and is for practical reasons an oddly
inappropriate one. The council is best advised to concentrate its talents
on straightening out the District, for which it was elected, rather than
sallying into the field of foreign policy and compromising its general
credibility.

The DC Superior Court opened its first satellite domestic violence
intake center in the Greater Southeast Community Center. "More than
60 percent of domestic violence victims that appear before the court are
from Southeast," said Brook Hedge, the presiding judge at the court's
domestic violence unit.

At the satellite intake center, domestic violence victims may petition
for a temporary protection order via web camera to a judge sitting in a
courtroom in the Moultrie courthouse. The court will provide a domestic
violence clerk to assist him with the proceedings, and an advocate from
the crime victims compensation program will be stationed at the center to
explain the resources that are available to victims and their families to
deal with crime-related expenses.

The new center is a partnership of the Superior Court, Women Empowered
Against Violence (WEAVE), the US Attorney's Office for the District of
Columbia, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Office of the
Corporation Counsel, and the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (The
Daily Washington Law Reporter, December 24, 2002)

What to do with the convention center the District already has? Well,
nobody knows -- yet. To address the need, the city council has required:
"Any proposed exclusive rights agreement to redevelop the existing
convention center site . . . shall be submitted with a proposed resolution
by the Mayor to the Council for a 30-day period of review, excluding
Saturdays, Sundays, legal holidays, and days of Council recess. If the
Council does not approve or disapprove the proposed resolution within this
30-day review period, the proposed resolution and exclusive rights
agreement shall be deemed approved." ("Council Review of
Existing Convention Center Site Redevelopment Congressional Review
Emergency Amendment Act of 2002")

The DC Department of Transportation (DOT) in collaboration with the
Georgetown Partnership business group implemented a pilot program to test
two different types of parking meters. The two-month program, which lasted
until January 15, is part of a citywide effort to update the city's
parking meter system.

The SchlumbergerSoma model can be inspected in front of 1318 M Street,
SW, and the Reino model can be found at 3403 M Street, NW, in front of the
Bicycle Pro Shop.

Everyone who runs for office has a right to be included in any and
every candidate forum, as he pleases. Right? Not, according to a recent
court decision in Massachusetts. This matter has arisen in District
elections, and is likely to come up again. Interestingly, the National
Law Journal (11/11/02) reports that a newspaper sponsor of an election
debate could exercise discretionary exclusion. The Journal reports:

"Denying a motion for a temporary restraining order by a state
treasurer to prevent a university from hosting a gubernatorial debate
unless the treasurer is allowed to participate, a Massachusetts federal
judge concluded that the university had merely provided the venue for the
debate, while the newspaper that had sponsored the debate had a First
Amendment right to exclude a candidate.

"Moreover, the exclusion of a candidate with no appreciable voter
interest -- in this case, the treasurer had 1% of the vote in the recent
polls -- was a 'reasonable, viewpoint-neutral exercise of journalist
discretion.'" Johnson v. Suffolk University, No. 02-12063-PBS
(D.Mass. Oct. 28)

Erie, Pennsylvania, mayor Rick Filippi is calling for local
universities Mercyhurst College and Gannon University to pay the city a
$50 per-student fee for use of the city's services. This would add an
estimated $300,000 a year to the city's coffers. The mayor is wrestling
with problems shared by his District of Columbia counterpart.

Forty percent of properties in Erie are tax exempt. The city already
has a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program in which nonprofit
organizations, including hospitals, pay PILOT at a rate of about half of
the normal taxation rate. Reportedly, Mercyhurst College's president
stated, "We should do something to help the city out." He noted
that the school has made donations to the city and purchased police
vehicles -- something lacking in the DC equation. District leaders should
keep an eye on the new Erie idea. A mayor-to-mayor telephone call in
several months would be a good start.

According to the Boston Globe, agreement was reached in August
1999 between Boston and Harvard University for the college to pay $12
million more in lieu of taxes to the city over two decades. Since 1975,
the university has been making payments to the city for its tax-exempt
property there. In 1998 the figure was $1.3 million, and the university
paid $2.3 million more on property that is not tax-exempt. In addition to
PILOT Harvard will give the city some $300,000 in linkage payments from
current building projects on its business school campus. Interestingly for
the District, by way of comparison, Harvard plans to build housing for 554
graduate students, increasing by 33 percent the number of graduate
students on its Allston campus.

Harvard will pay the city the same amount on its student housing in
Boston as it would if it were being taxed on the property. On the rest of
the business school campus, Harvard will pay about a dollar per square
foot, the equivalent of what other institutions pay under in-lieu-of-taxes
agreements, according to the Boston commissioner of taxation. Businesses
pay four or five dollars per square foot.

The Salisbury, MD, city council in mid-December 2002 adopted an
ordinance reducing the number of unrelated roommates in rental homes in
the city from four to two persons. The law takes effect this month, but
current rental homes are exempt until July 2005. The limits apply to all
single-family neighborhoods.

The proposal originated with homeowners near the Salisbury University
campus, who complained that landlords were rapidly buying up homes for
student rentals, squeezing out family buyers and creating nuisances. Two
(of five voting) councilmembers tried to amend the ordinance to limit the
change to neighborhoods near the college. This failed.

Although the new law was opposed by students and landlords, the city
bit the bullet and openly regulated a perceived problem. What a contrast
to the District of Columbia, which seems to have a terminal problem with
defining what numbers of unrelated renters, particularly in impacted
single-family communities near colleges, are permissible.

Which brings to mind: it is time to renew inquiries as to the status of
Office of Planning regulations in preparation for over a year, which will
regulate, inter alia, some college rental housing in impacted DC
neighborhoods.

To prevent "unfair denial of operator license renewal and vehicle
registration due to outdated parking fines, penalties, and fees that have
not been paid," new temporary bridging legislation prohibits such
denials by DC authorities, until permanent legislation kicks in in March
2003. The new law is "Motor Vehicle Registration and Operator's
Permit Issuance Enhancement Congressional Review Emergency Declaration
Resolution of 2002."